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{TWD} Thanksgiving Twofer Pie-ettes

I was prepared to hate this recipe. I’m not a fan of pumpkin pie and pecan pie was never my thing. I’m an apple pie lover. I’m indiscriminate in my love, any kind–old fashioned, Dutch, turnovers, tarts–it doesn’t matter. Add vanilla ice cream and welcome to heaven. 😛

See the chunks of buttery goodness?

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, A Thanksgiving Twofer Pie, was created by Dorie Greenspan to appease lovers of either pumpkin pies, pecan pies, or both kind of pies.

Instead of making one big pie, I decided to make tiny pies in a cupcake/muffin pan. This involved a lot of hope and faith on my part because I wasn’t sure the pie-ettes would release from the pan without breaking or falling apart. I was willing to risk it, to try a new pie baking method, because if I failed it would have been no big loss. I wasn’t going to like this recipe.

Due to the smaller size, I had to play around with the baking times both when I pre-baked the crust and when I baked the filled pie-ettes.

The secret to a great pie crust is butter. Specifically, very cold butter. When you make the pie crust, you want to keep the butter as cold as possible. I always freeze my butter and use ice-cold water. When you roll out the dough, you should still see chunks of butter. It’s also important to chill the dough prior to baking to make sure that the butter chunks are still cold. When you bake the crust, the butter chunks melt and create pockets of flakiness and the cold butter delays the melting until the baking crust can support the air pockets.

A 9-inch pie crust was enough to mold each cup in the muffin tin. I made the fillings as directed, but ended up with too much. I ended up pouring the extra pumpkin pie filling into custard dishes and making a couple of crustless pumpkin pies.

The pie-ettes turned out wonderful. I may not be a pumpkin or pecan pie fan, but I am now a pumpkin and pecan twofer pie fan. YUM!

Thank you to Vibi of La casserole carrée who chose the Thanksgiving Twofer Pie for this week. This was a great choice because I wouldn’t normally pick something like this to bake.

I’m making this on Thursday or Friday, but I’m having fun “previewing” other pies first. Your minis are really cute – a bit of work it seems, but now you’ve mastered the technique. Glad you’re a ‘convert’; Dorie is good for that.
Nancy

I think mini-pies (or tarts) make a wonderful presentation. I’m sorry I couldn’t manage to join in this week – I think I would have liked the pumpkin and pecan combo better than either one alone. Glad these were a hit! See you soon.

Oh, I just love the little pie-ettes! Thanks for sharing your information and ideas…it is always fun to come and see what other options are available with all the other bakers. I think you have a winner here with this one!

I love the mini pie idea! I had that idea after I finished baking it, and had tried to cut circles out with a cookie cutter…yeah that didn’t work 🙂 I guess I should’ve looked at your blog first! Happy Thanksgiving!

Pie-lettes! So stinkin cute! Now you’re making me rethink my whole big pie to mini pie cupcakes. Glad you enjoyed the recipe and have become a twofer believer! Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!
Clara @ iheartfood4thought

How lovely! Thanks for sharing your clever technique–I’ll have to give this a try.

I made the pie last night and I too was skeptical. I’ve *never* eaten any pumpkin pie (how weird is that?), but I adore pecan pie. It was a hit at work, too, and now I have happy feelings about pumpkin pie!

Great idea for the twofer pies, little minis. I ended up making some cherry pies in muffin tins, too. So cute! Making minis ensures that the pies are done, that was my problem. Couldn’t for the life of me get that whole pie to bake all the way. I only tasted a pecan, then gave the whole pie away.